The veils of Aleppo

Sheets line the devastated streets of Aleppo, Syria, acting as shields to obscure Free Syrian Army soldiers from the view of Bashar al-Assad's security force snipers. Before the war, these sheets served a very different purpose as residents used them for privacy or to protect their homes from harsh weather. “Aleppo’s sheets serve the same purpose: they protect lives. But you’re always aware how fragile they are."

Franco Pagetti, member of VII photoagency. has covered the conflict in Iraq since January 2003, three months before the start of the war. Since 2004, he has constantly been based in Baghdad on assignment for TIME Magazine. His images have captured the horrors of war, the brief flowering of hope after the downfall of Saddam Hussein, the rise of insurgent and terrorist groups, and more recently, the inexorable descent into a bloody sectarian civil war. Pagetti has been a news photographer since 1997, and most of his recent work has involved conflict situations: Afghanistan (1997, â??98, 2001), Kosovo (1999), East Timor (1999), Kashmir (1998, 2000 and 2001), Palestine (2002), Sierrra Leone (2001) and South Sudan (1997). He works on long term projects around war, conflict and social issues.